Asian WTTC Continental: Sreeja, Manika, Sharath reach pre-quarters; seal World C'ship berth

Indian paddlers Manika Batra and Sreeja Akula entered the pre-quarterfinals of the Asia Continental Stage of the 2023 WTTC Finals but the country's three other women in the fray lost their respective matches here on Tuesday.

Asian Cup bronze medallist Batra progressed with a 4-0 sweep of Hong Kong's Zhu Chengzhu.

Akula advanced to the next stage of the tournament with a 4-3 win over Chen Szu-Yu of Chinese Taipei. Akula who was trailing by 1-3 against former World rank 10 Chen Szu made a stunning comeback to do an upset.

However, Chitale Diya Parag lost 1-4 to Hirano Miu of Japan, Swastika Ghosh was blanked 4-0 by Korea's Jeon Jihee, and Reeth Tennison also suffered a 0-4 defeat at the hands of Hayata Hina of Japan.

Sharath Kamal Achanta advances

In the men's section, Sharath Kamal Achanta was the only Indian to advance to the pre-quarters with a 4-1 win over Iran's Ahmadin Amin.

Both Harmeet Desi and Manush Shah went down 4-0 to China's Fan Zhendong and Lim Jonghoon of South Korea respectively.

With this victory, all three of Manika Batra, Sreeja Akula, and Achanta Sharath Kamal also qualified for the ITTF World Championships slated to be held in May later this year.